The importance of the written word has not exactly had the best reception from today’s audiences. A lot of audiences are more enthralled with the idea of waiting for a bestseller’s adaptation into a blockbuster movie or a hit TV show instead of actually reading it. Studies have predicted that consumers will take the validity of a 140-character bit of news from a trusted source rather than actually pick up a newspaper or actively seek out information.

This kind of mentality has led many heads of marketing and business into thinking that content is dead. It isn’t – much like everything else that survives, content evolves. There would be no fancy graphics or viral videos without the content writing behind it. That is why there is no such thing as something being more important than another in this kind of set-up.

If your website isn’t aesthetically pleasing, it won’t attract audiences; if there’s nothing at the core of your website, it won’t retain loyal clientele. According to the website of Kinetic Word, a website can get thousands of hits per day and still not have an interested customer at the end of the day. Everything has to work together. You have to realize that your business’s branding and marketing isn’t a hierarchy of what’s more important – it’s an entire structure with bits and pieces forming a perfect picture of what you want your business to be.

Today’s audiences are not interested in being swallowed whole – as if treated as a single entity. Consumers of this day and age want and crave that feeling of being individual, of being personally spoken to. It is in acknowledging individual power that you can see what kind of content it is that your consumer base wants to see and needs to know.

Understanding your audience is the first step into a mutual collaboration between the creator and the consumer, allowing for there to be something achieved on both ends.

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Responding to a burn injury will depend on the severity of the burn. As you may already know, burn injuries are typically classified into three types. You could be a parent concerned with the safety of your children. You could be working in an industry with high risks of injury, concerned with making sure you remain safe while on the job. Whatever the case, it’s important to be prepared and learn which first aid measures to take in case the worst happens.

First degree burns are the least alarming, with the injury affecting only the epidermis or top layer of the skin. Sunburns and other superficial burns fall under this category. It causes pain, redness, and swelling in the skin, which are pretty easy to remedy. Start by running the injured area under cool water or holding a cold compress against the area for 3-5 minutes. Make sure you don’t use ice or water that is too cold because it can cause even more damage to the skin. After that, you can apply some burn ointment or aloe cream to the affected area. You can also cover the injury with a gauze pad or bandage to keep the area sterilized.

A second degree burn is more serious because it involves the other layers of the skin protected by the epidermis. Aside from pain and redness, you will also see blisters in the skin that might break open and cause the injured area to look wet and raw. When this happens, it’s best to seek out emergency medical attention immediately. As you wait for help to arrive, you can try to ease discomfort by removing the clothes surrounding the burn, applying cool water to the injury for about 3-5 minutes, and keeping the area covered with a clean piece of cloth.

Third degree burns are the most severe cause the injured area to look charred, white, brown, leathery, dry, or waxy. Most of the time, the injured area will also feel numb. The most severe of these burns may feel painless due to nerve damage. Again, you will need to call 911 and seek immediate medical attention. Follow the same steps you would in case of a second degree burn. Just be sure you don’t try to force or peel off pieces of clothing that have been stuck to the injured skin.

According to their 2013 fact sheet, the American Burn Association estimates that over 60 percent of hospitalization cases are related to burn injuries. Majority of these injuries are caused by accidents at home, but some also happened due to accidents on the road or in the workplace.

The website of Nashville personal injury lawyers Pohl & Berk LLP also noted that some cases of burn injuries could have been due to someone else’s negligence. When this happens, victims can pursue just compensation and find accountability for the devastating outcomes they’ve experienced. If you or anyone you know are in a similar scenario, don’t hesitate to seek legal counsel and learn which options are available for you.

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Like any other legal matter or court proceeding, the issues covered under family law are also intricate in detail. Besides the complexity of the law is the sensitivity or each topic, which also causes much emotional distress. Divorce and the many different issues related to it, namely, child support, visitation rights, child custody, division of properties and debts, alimony, and paternity action are among these.

Paternity disputes or paternity actions can be a frightening ordeal for someone who is being named as a child’s father, but who is definitely not prepared to be one yet. When a person denies any possibility of having fathered a child, the court can be requested to intervene in the matter and help in proving whether the child’s or any other’s claim to such person’s fatherhood is true or not.

In the UK, for the court to be able to act on the dispute, the child making the claim can file his/her application to the court based on the stipulations of the Family Law Act of 1986. This Act recognizes a child’s act of “Declaration” that a certain person is his/her parent and that he/she is the legitimate child of such person.

According to Raleigh divorce attorneys, children who have not reached the age of 18 cannot make the application, though; someone above 18 years old should, instead, apply on his/her behalf. This older person, regardless of his/her real relationship with the child, is legally identified as a “Next Friend.”

On the other hand, if it is the father who would like to prove or disprove any claim that he is a particular child’s father (due to the child support he is being asked to pay for the child’s welfare), the he can make his application under the Child Support Act of 1991, for a “Declaration” that he is either the father or not the father of the child making the claim.

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When fatal car accidents happen, there is a tendency for people to look for a serious cause for it to at least mitigate the tragedy it represents. If the brakes failed, for instance, or the ignition switch failed, these are at least circumstances that are beyond the control of the driver. Unfortunately, too many car accidents happen for the most ridiculous reasons.

One of these is driving while intoxicated with drugs or alcohol, but this is increasingly being rivaled in frequency by the use of handheld devices, mostly texting and mostly involving teenagers. This may be because while most states ban texting while driving, including Kentucky, it is not sanctioned with the same severity as drunk driving. This is a form of reckless driving that according to the website of the Sampson Law Firm can be life-changing, and not in a good way.

Another cause is distraction, such as changing the radio station, fiddling with the GPS, or simply picking up something from the car floor. These are momentary distractions, but it only takes a moment for a child to run across the street or for a car in front to suddenly brake.

And then there are some accidents that have no immediately apparent cause. A recent single-car accident on the Second Street Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky was reported where the driver died on the scene. It seems that for some reason the driver who had been driving south had drifted to the northbound lane and then swerved back only to strike an iron support of the bridge hard enough to kill her. Investigation into the incident is underway, but reports that the driver had been going 65 mph on a 35 mph stretch does not explain why the car would swerve the way it did.

In that instance, only the driver and some property were affected, but it could easily have involved other vehicles and people. If you have been seriously hurt in a negligent car accident, you may be eligible for compensation. Consult with a skilled car accident lawyer in the area to review your case and give advice about what can be done.

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Every year, about 12,000 individuals are added to the more than 200,000 already suffering from spinal cord injuries (SCI). A spinal injury can result from either a non-traumatic or traumatic experience. While a non-traumatic experience can include infections, arthritis, cancer and other illnesses, disc collapse and inflammation of the spine, a traumatic one is a result of a sudden, forceful blow that can crush, fracture or dislocate any region/s of the vertebral column.

Spinal injuries can be caused by a gunshot, a hard fall or bump (with excessive force) during sport activities, a case of a slip and fall accident, of a motor vehicle crash. Due to the activities that usually lead to spinal injuries, the most common victims are, therefore, young males, especially those 16 to 30 years in age.

A spinal injury, whether it is partial (Paraplegia) or total (Quadriplegia) paralysis, can change a victim’s life forever. Not only will it require additional costly medical costs, but this paralyzing injury may also force you to make major changes in your work, activities, schedule – in all aspects of your life, actually.

Partial paralysis or Paraplegia, in particular can result to sexual side effects, extensive nerve damage, loss of fertility, loss of function and feeling of extremity and loss of bladder and bowel control. Almost half of all the cases of spinal injuries are partial paralyses, which may also be a result of medical malpractice, aside from car accidents and slip and fall.

A spinal injury is actually a result of damage or harm to the spinal cord or spinal/vertebral column since this damage will render the brain unable to send signals to different parts of the body. The brain and the spinal cord form the Central Nervous System, which is composed of nerve segments that are protected by the spinal column / vertebral column (simply called backbone or spine). To cushion and protect the spinal cord’s delicate nerve tissues, the Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF) encircles them, keeping them undamaged despite impact; but protection is only possible if the impact is not extremely forceful.

It is more possible than not, that if anyone is suffering from a spinal injury, that injury was sustained due to someone else’s negligent or reckless acts, rendering it a personal injury. Under the law, victims of personal injury ought to be compensated by the person, firm (or whatever entity) that caused such injury.

If you or a loved one has suffered a spinal cord injury because of medical malpractice, contact a personal injury lawyer today. You shouldn’t have to suffer alone and a personal injury lawyer will be able to guide you through this difficult time.

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Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are just two of the many agencies and laws that safeguard the rights of all employees, as well as job applicants, in the United States. Through these two federal decrees, individuals are protected from being intimidated, coerced, threatened, harassed, unjustly compensated, discriminated against, wrongfully terminated, (and many others) in the workplace. Besides these, there is another protection that EEOC offers, but which employees may not be aware of – that is, protection against retaliation.

Retaliation refers to any adverse act resorted to by an employer, labor organization or employment agency against an employee who participates in legally protected activities. An adverse act is any act, like termination, refusal to hire, unjustified negative references or evaluation, and criminal or civil charges, that will impede a person from opposing or participating in employment discrimination proceedings; a legally protected activity, on the other hand, refers to any act that will help expose and /or prove discriminatory practices or harassment in the workplace. Some samples of protected activities are:

Refusal to follow a superior’s order which is honestly alleged as discriminatory

Protesting/picketing against workplace discrimination

Showing intent to file a charge of discrimination or actually filing a case of employment discrimination

Acting as a witness in an EEOC investigation or legal proceeding

There are acts of retaliation that are quite obvious, such as reduction in salary, demotion, being denied a raise or promotion, and being fired from work; there are retaliatory acts too that are subtle and, therefore, not immediately apparent, like job relocation or a change in work schedule, which could limit employee flexibility or greatly inconvenience a parent-employee.

There have been many laws passed and agencies formed with the intent of protecting employees from employer retaliation regardless of the status of their employment (while still employed, retaliation may be in the form of demotion, reduction in salary, etc.; retaliation after employee’s resignation from work can include bad referencing). Some of these laws are:

Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), which was signed into law in 1970 and which gave rise to the government agency called the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). This law was designed to keep workers from any hazards in the workplace, like toxic chemicals, damaging noise levels, extreme temperature (heat or cold), dangerous machinery, etc.;

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which became a law in 1993. It lays down the right of every employee to take time off from work due to illness or injury, either to his/her own person or to a family member, and arrival of a new child (through birth or adoption);

Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). This became a law in 2002 and is also known under the name Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protector Act of 2002. The Act asks employees to report to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) any accounting violations or accounting fraud scandals committed by public companies.

Obviously, no employer would admit resorting to retaliatory acts to get back at an employee. However, if you honestly feel that your employer is retaliating against you, then one of the wisest moves to take is to ask for legal advice. By contacting a hostile work environment lawyer, you will be able to work through your case with an expert.

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Last month, the Supreme Court convened to rule on a number of high-profile cases before recessing for the summer. While many people were focused on the Supreme Court’s decisions regarding the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8, or the Voting Rights Act, there were two cases decided 5 to 4 that had a significant impact on employment discrimination and received much less press coverage. The website of Melton & Kumler, LLP, fittingly notes that in spite of the progressive attitude shown by the Supreme Court’s reversal of DOMA and Prop 8, employment discrimination is still a serious problem today.

These two cases, Vance v. Ball State University, and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar, respectively ruled on the definition of a “supervisor” when looking at racial or sexual harassment cases, and the burden of proof on employees regarding illegal retaliation against employment discrimination complaints.

In the first case, Vance complained of racial harassment by her supervisor. However, the court ruled that Vance’s harasser was a co-worker, rather than a supervisor, and therefore needed more proof from Vance before Ball State University could be found liable for the damages.

In the second case, Nassar, a physician at the UT Southwestern Medical Center, had complained of racial and religious discrimination and now claimed that the medical center had retaliated by giving him a sub-standard job offer. The court ruled that it was not enough for retaliation to have been part of the motivation for the medical center’s undesirable job offer, but rather it needed to be the defining reason for the action.

The court’s rulings, which met passionate dissent from the four more liberal justices, mark a trend toward greater difficulty for employees who have been discriminated against, or punished for complaining about discrimination, to come up with credible cases and receive compensation.

If you believe you have a discrimination case, contact a discrimination lawyer today to discuss your options.